Self-transformation through Railways

OP Singh

The most common ordeals, such as examinations, interviews, speech-making and surgery never unnerved me. The only ordeal which appears too eerie to me is catching a train, because the unavoidable eventualities of travelling without reservation, reaching the railway station late and sighting of a family running helter-skelter after a speeding train with shouts like ‘Arey Munna nahin dikh raha, coolie kahan gaya, train tej ho gayee, daudo!’ send a chill up my spine.

Once I was forced to travel exigently from Chandigarh to Jhansi without confirmed reservation. To make the bad situation worse, I reached the station after my train had already screeched in. Its scheduled halt was seven minutes. Hence, I hurriedly headed for the displayed reservation chart and nervously started scanning it. I did not find any name starting with ‘O’. In the meantime, the train whistled to depart and my heart whistled to come apart. I scanned the chart for the fourth time, but this time to look for my ticket number instead of my name. I did find it, but the name typed against it was ‘Drop Singh’. I suddenly realised that while filling my reservation form, I had written my name as Dr OP Singh and the typist had inadvertently combined ‘Dr’ and ‘OP’ into ‘Drop’, thus changing my name! As soon as I got my new name, I ran fast after the speeding train, which I somehow caught, making it my life’s first railway-related feat.

Heaving deep sighs of relief, I nestled on my berth snugly. Enjoying the rhythm of the train, I sank unknowingly into deep contemplation on my new given name, when a self-realisation dawned that I was in reality only an insignificantly small drop in the infinite ocean of the world inundating with its numerous great men and their achievements, and, therefore, I had always very wrongly thought I was somebody due to my BSc, BTech, MScTech and PhD (Manchester, UK) degrees, British Commonwealth research scholarship, headship of a university department for several years, guidance of research of several MSc and PhD students, published research work, etc., making me live all alone even in so populous a world.

As this realisation of my smallness made my mind ego-free, my humility increased, transforming me from an egoistic and lonely person into a humble, social being who loves to help the multitude of the needy wanting affection, food and money.

A bizarre aspect of my transformation was that it came through the Railways’ erroneous reservation chart and noisy (whistling, running and screeching) train; and not through the effortful practice of any of the four spiritual ways of transformation — raja yoga, karma yoga, jnana yoga and bhakti yoga.

May God bless the Indian Railways! Bon voyage!